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Google has announced on Google+ they brought an important feature from the old Google Maps to the new Google Maps. What feature? The ability to share the maps you are looking at via a short URL or embedding the map on your own site.
Typically, Google Maps URLs are so long that emailing the URL to a friend can break it. So using a short URL is important when sharing maps with friends. The new Google Maps did not have this feature, nor did it have the feature to embed maps on your own site.
Here is how you access the feature. On the bottom right corner of the maps, there is a gears icon, click it and you will see the "share and embed map" link:
Then a window will pop up with the option to copy the long URL, or make a short one. Another option is in the second tab to embed the map on your own site:
As you can see, Google is slowly brining the new Google Maps feature set up to speed with the old one.
Forum discussion at Google+.
